'If I had one reservation - and, contractually, I must - I'd say it's a shame the show hasn't been pitched at a family audience. Why? Simply because some of the concepts (a particular "magic" paving stone outside Cardiff's Millenium Centre, for one) are exactly the right mix of the mundane and fantastic to excite a child's imagination. The eight-year-old me would have gone nuts over some of the ideas here.' How will Torchwood shape up? We'll soon see. ^_^ The first two episodes air on BBC3 tonight, at 9pm BST. (Judging by the episode synopses, I'm not sure they'd be quite ideal for the average eight year old =:)

Here's a little historical gem of techie history: a BBC short from 1936, Television comes to London, looking at the appropriation of Alexandra Palace as the site for the corporation's experimental transmissions of television, broadcasting in Baird's and Marconi's formats on alternate weeks. (The following year, the 405 line Marconi system was adopted) Also noteworthy for the inappropriate soundtrack, which swells to majestic heights at times like mentioning the new drainage system required. It's fun seeing the launch of television as newsstand headlines, and on a geekier front, one of the camera tubes being painstakingly hand blown.

Spectacularly awful games of yore, via savant_da_rat, including such gems as Custer's Revenge: "In addition to the faithfulness to details like Custer's blue cowboy hat and magnificently gay pink scarf, the creators did exhaustive research on cowboys having sex. The game uses the time-honored historical Old West style of scoring, which is one point for each successful pelvic thrust, seven points for all solid slaps to the ass, and immediately being declared sheriff if you perform a full backflip without leaving the vagina."

Bah! I'm having to wait for the torrents to fire up. ^_^; Hopefully someone'll provide HD-sourced ones - the difference between 480i and even just 544p is quite strong. (Yay! Just confirmed it - BBC HDis showing it. Pity it's not feasible to offer HD over Freeview, but so it goes)

I'm only asking about the ears and tail for now - the character I'm cosplaying doesn't have kitten paws. I dunno - I may get those at a later date, if I pick up extra spare change. Unless they're less than $20. I dunno. Mmm, may ask when they get back to me.